End of a Dry Spell

Jane Gardam is new to me, and I'll be reading more. She has written 16 novels and is a two time winner of the Whitbread Award, so where have I been? I just finished Old Filth, written in 2004. It is delightful reading: wonderful characters, great writing, and beautifully structured & paced. It is the story of a "Raj orphan", abandoned by his father, raised by Malay natives & then an abusive foster home in Wales. He is tossed by life for years, gets through Cambridge, & becomes a successful lawyer & judge in Hong Kong. Filth is his acronym for Failed in London Try Hong Kong. There are some great early developments that are saved for the very end the book. The soft cover was published by Europa Editions, always dependable for a good read!

One out of Three

I read three highly praised recent novels by young authors. Two of them were completely lost on me. Poorly plotted stories of misfit main characters and their even more dysfunctional, horrid families: what's the point? Perhaps it is a new genre, misfit ennui? You Were Wrong topped it off with edgy, often annoying, writing. Erased was filled with absurd characters that toppled into goofiness. The Hidden by Tobias Hill was a welcome relief, good writing, well drawn characters. It reminded me of Don Delillo's The Names in many respects, which is a compliment. A recently divorced anthropologist washes up at an archeology dig in Greece. He tries hard to be accepted into the secretive inner circle here.This conceit did wear thin, but the accelerating pace of the ending freshened it up. Be careful what you wish for.